Spanish immersion classes

Hey guys so I'm new here and about to hit the road soon. Im flying into Costa Rica and will be staying in CA for about 2 months. I am trying to find out where I should go to learn some spanish. I think I would like to do about a week in a spanish immersion class at a place with room and board if at all possible. I plan on spending most of my time in Nicaragua but also some time in Costa Rica. I'm on a small budget as well. Anyone have some good tips? thanks.

Your best bet for excellent inexpensive Spanish classes is Guatemala where you can get private instruction and room and board with a family for around $120usd per week. Try the Escuela Cooperativa in San Pedro La Laguna, a fifteen minute boat trip across beautiful Lake Atitlan from Panajachel.

If being on a small town on the side of a gorgeous volcanic caldera lake surrounded by 3 inactive volcanos doesn't excite you, you can go to antiqua, which is far more social in the non-spanish sense, or Quetzaltenango, a pretty un-spectacular large city with a lot of very good Spanish schools. In Quetzaltenango you'll be driven to speak Spanish, because the number of Spanish students are tiny compared to the population of the city.

Guatemala is full of options for language learning. Check out the language section of this board for more details.

I ran across several people who were taking spanish classes in Granada, Nicaragua and were quite happy with them. I don't know the school names unfortunately. Granada is a fantastic town to spend time in and it sounded like there was a few schools.

Hi ya - Im looking at exactly the same thing for Costa Rica too and have found this school which i reckon looks pretty good:http://www.cactuslanguage.com/en/languages/spanish.phpIm leaning toward the one in Manuel Antonio or Samara looks good too. You can stay with a family for total immersion, have one on one or group lessons. Looks like they have schools all over South/Central America.

Small budget, heavy immersion, already in Nicaragua ... easy. Esteli, Nicaragua. If that's too far off the beaten path, nearby Leon would be a good bet too. Granada has too many tourists and English-speaking workers to be fully immersed. Guatemala is a good bet for cheap immersion (outside of Antigua or Atitlan - Quetzaltenango, aka Xela is a solid recommendation), although quite a hike from Costa Rica.

Costa Rica has Spanish schools, but is expensive, and full of English-speakers.

Wherever you decide to take Spanish, try to stay with a family with young school age children. We learned more basic Spanish from talking with the children than we did from the adults, and the children had infinite patience with us.

----------------------------------------- I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.-Mark Twain

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